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21 Facts About John Bratby

1.

John Randall Bratby RA was an English painter who founded the kitchen sink realism style of art that was influential in the late 1950s.

2.

John Bratby was born on 19 July 1928 in Wimbledon, south-west London.

3.

John Bratby then began attending the Royal College of Art, completing his studies in 1954.

4.

John Bratby painted landscapes, still lifes, portraits and figure compositions, and had his first solo exhibition that year at London's Beaux Arts Gallery.

5.

John Bratby was given the opportunity to travel to Italy when he was awarded a bursary during his college years.

6.

John Bratby often painted with bright colours, capturing his middle-class family's daily lives.

7.

John Bratby painted several kitchen subjects, often turning practical utensils such as sieves and spoons into semi-abstract shapes.

8.

John Bratby painted bathrooms, and made three paintings of toilets.

9.

In 1958, John Bratby created works for the fictional artist Gulley Jimson in the Alec Guinness film The Horse's Mouth.

10.

John Bratby made the mural Golgotha for Lancaster's St Martin's Chapel in 1965.

11.

John Bratby mingled with celebrities to earn portrait commissions in the late 1960s.

12.

John Bratby was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1971.

13.

John Bratby made intimately-posed portraits of his wife and self-portraits.

14.

John Bratby continued to paint with bright colours, but had developed "an economy of line".

15.

John Bratby's paintings are shown in the 1984 television mini-series adaptation of Judith Krantz's novel Mistral's Daughter, about an artist.

16.

John Bratby's work fell out of favour with the emergence of Pop art, but his paintings have increased in value and critical support over recent years.

17.

John Bratby wrote the novels Breakdown, Breakfast and Elevenses, and Brake Pedal Down.

18.

John Bratby wrote a book about Stanley Spencer in 1970.

19.

John Bratby often painted over or "slashed" her works and restricted her painting time to three morning hours.

20.

John Bratby began signing her works with her maiden name at Bratby's insistence.

21.

John Bratby died on 20 July 1992 in Hastings, Sussex, of a heart attack, leaving his widow, second wife Patti Rosenburg.